90_hour_sleep Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 "Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love... When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as loves crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes not but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; for love is sufficient unto love. And think not that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy. To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips." Excerpt from ''The Prophet'' --Kahlil Gibran-- Link to comment
Capricorn3 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Very nice, but way too heavy for my puny brain, lol. Link to comment
90_hour_sleep Posted October 17, 2009 Author Share Posted October 17, 2009 Very nice, but way too heavy for my puny brain, lol. but not too heavy for your heart. ps. i'm sure your brain is more than adequate, cappy. Link to comment
Celestialagape54 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Very nice...thank you for the post! Link to comment
90_hour_sleep Posted October 17, 2009 Author Share Posted October 17, 2009 Very nice...thank you for the post! so simple...that's the beauty... Link to comment
Celestialagape54 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 so simple...that's the beauty... So true if only more things were like that... Link to comment
90_hour_sleep Posted October 17, 2009 Author Share Posted October 17, 2009 So true if only more things were like that... simple? i wonder how often it's not the things that are complicated...but us who complicates them. there's truth in that for me. i don't imagine i'm alone. there is beauty in all things. But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. is there anything more beautiful than experiencing something fully...without doubt? without a ''second thought'' so to speak? imagine...shutting off your thoughts. what would be left? i'm sure it's something beautiful...something simple. Link to comment
Celestialagape54 Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 simple? i wonder how often it's not the things that are complicated...but us who complicates them. there's truth in that for me. i don't imagine i'm alone. there is beauty in all things. 90 this is one of the best explanations that I have heard in a long time! Link to comment
mad rabbits Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 I feel like I totally understand what it is saying, and it's really beautiful. I think another version of this sentiment is well articulated by - oddly enough, because he is a totally different bag of bones - Charles Bukowski: "If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is." Link to comment
90_hour_sleep Posted October 17, 2009 Author Share Posted October 17, 2009 simple? i wonder how often it's not the things that are complicated...but us who complicates them. there's truth in that for me. i don't imagine i'm alone. there is beauty in all things. 90 this is one of the best explanations that I have heard in a long time! happy to hear it. I feel like I totally understand what it is saying, and it's really beautiful. I think another version of this sentiment is well articulated by - oddly enough, because he is a totally different bag of bones - Charles Bukowski: "If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is." kind of an interesting reference. there are so many different ways to express the same truths. what resonates for one, will be completely alien and disharmonious for another. yet another aspect of the beauty of truth. it comes as it comes...to each of us...in our own time. it's hard to fathom the experience that another will have with that truth. while there are similarities i'm sure...the experience, i imagine, is quite unique to the individual. i find that truly awesome!! thanks for sharing bad ps. do you understand isolation...i mean...from your own personal experience? Link to comment
mad rabbits Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Thanks for asking 90 hour.. Yes, I do understand isolation, from my personal experience. I've often felt very lonely. I am an only child, was a bit of an outcast at school, and just generally have always felt very very different from other people. I don't know if you set any stock in myers-briggs, but I am an INTJ, and we are the rarest personality type, notoriously bad at relationships, and often feel like aliens I think... the wiki says: "Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel ... This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals ... Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense." And that is me down to the ground! And yes, I have not met with much success in relationships either, so the isolation continues... But I have grown to love my isolation - and hence, I am no longer lonely. As Bukowski says, "isolation is the gift." I think that can be interpreted many ways, but for me it means, it is through isolation - through emptiness, through absence - that I understand the fullness of the other side of the coin. Its a yin-yang idea I guess. Through isolation I understand the fullness of connectedness...it is through isolation I see myself naked, without the confusing filters of society...it is through isolation I practice my creativity (I'm a writer so that figures) I'm a fan of isolation. Link to comment
90_hour_sleep Posted October 17, 2009 Author Share Posted October 17, 2009 myers-briggs...yes. from my perspective, it's really just a means of labelling. i'm not suggesting that it's a bad thing, only that perhaps it's best to leave it at that...a label. sometimes the tendency is to fully embrace the results...to become completely identified with the role. it becomes you...and you become it. from a diagnostic perspective, i'm sure it can be beneficial. is that what it's used for? i remember doing it back in high school. anyway, i'm not attacking your personality. but i do wonder, does your M-B profile perhaps add a self-fulfilling element to the mix. can you escape the role? although... i think this says it all. i believe you'll make a splendid writer. you've known the darkness of isolation...but you've realized the true splendor of life because of that. the best of both worlds perhaps... i'm pretty sure you just get it. Link to comment
mad rabbits Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Oh yeah, the myers-briggs thing is a label, like any other...but labels are similar to words I guess...they do designate meanings, but it's responsible to approach them flexibly. I do find the MB typology somewhat helpful in understanding myself, particularly how I go about my work and how I approach - and am often perceived - by others. The typology is rooted in Jungian psychology, something I am really interested in, and yes it has been used as a diagnostic and clinical tool, in a range of therapeutic contexts but particularly as applied to organizational psychology. I'm not sure I feel its a "role straitjacket" for me...just one of the theories and tools I like to think about... Do you like to write? You seem to read quite a bit I really like the quote in your sig by the way, I just borrowed it and posted it in "quotes" on my facebook page..lol... Fiction writing is kind of sorcery I think. It is making a new meaning which is kind of abstract, received at a different level of consciousness than, say, theoretical material...a level that kind of unites higher consciousness with emotions...it is quite a spiritual activity I think. I struggle with it, and it is lonely work...but when something works out in just that perfect way, magic!! Link to comment
90_hour_sleep Posted October 17, 2009 Author Share Posted October 17, 2009 i see...i see. reading's kind of a new hobby for me. i used to enjoy fiction...but i'm far more receptive to non-fiction these days. i enjoy writing too...although it's not something i really see myself doing. i suppose if i were to nurture it... i dunno. my quote is from the show ''dexter'', oddly enough. ever seen it? i imagine you'd enjoy it. he knows how to appreciate his isolation as well...although on a much more dramatic level. i'm sure he'd fit in well with 'facebook'...how to remain connected in perfect isolation. do you mind if i ask what you write about? is it a hobby...or something you're hoping to (or have already) turn into a career? Link to comment
mad rabbits Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 Yep, I am a big fan of Dexter. Its a great idea and very well executed, and he's a fantastic character. I guess I'm at the stage now where writing is a fledgling career. I still have to work a regular job to earn money but now starting to have small amounts coming in from my writing. I write short stories for literary journals. Many who will publish newcomers don't pay at all. It's that kind of industry - there are so many people wanting to write and be published, well, the publishers can get away with picking and choosing what they want, often providing no payment. Money starts to come in when you publish novels, then you collect royalties, maybe get a chance to sell film rights if the work is deemed desirable from that point of view, also literary competitions and such. I'm not sure if I am ever going to fully earn my living from writing but its important to me to just keep at it in one form or another, and write what I enjoy and has meanng for me. The rest would be nice but I don't need it. I like to write about people and situations that are superficially ordinary, but when you peel back the layers there is a human drama there, a crisis of some sort, a tipping point or a transformation. The stories aren't set anywhere in particular, they are usually in anonymous large cities, because what I am interested in is the internal psychology of characters. I enjoy reading non fiction too. Especially biographies. The Gibran text you cite, that is sort of from that inspirational strand of writing, are you reading some of that at the moment? Some is good, some is very bad! Dark Nights of the Soul, by Thomas Moore, is an interesting book. Link to comment
90_hour_sleep Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 well, it's easy to appreciate the perspective you have...where your own expectations are taking you. it's nice. i think the understanding of 'life' that you've gained (an experience of wholesomeness) is really what allows the true creative outlet to be realized. i imagine the more deeply you come to know it...the more your creativity will blossom. you're right...there are indeed some VERY bad works out there. i've had good fortune in that department. i was exposed to elements of truth early in the process. it's easy to spot the frauds now. i find most of what i read these days tends to come back to the same fundamental ideas. gibran's work is particularily enjoyable. there's something so elegant about it. i have this picture of myself...sitting outside reading...grinning like an idiot...really just lost in the beauty of it. i also enjoyed harry potter...hahahaha. i'm not ashamed. the industry may be cruel...but we're fortunate to be living in a time where exposure is possible on so many levels. i'm sure your heart will take you where you belong. i'm curious...do you have any writings you'd be willing to share? Link to comment
mad rabbits Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 i think the understanding of 'life' that you've gained (an experience of wholesomeness) is really what allows the true creative outlet to be realized. i imagine the more deeply you come to know it...the more your creativity will blossom. That's so very true! Actually, while I have practised writing in one form or another all my life...I actually couldn't complete a work of fiction until a few years ago. I would start, but then I would get clogged up, frightened, and could not continue. I started out in academia and used to just write critical, theoretical material. I was so out of touch with my feelings, I could not write fiction at all really. An "unplugging" process coincided with a range of things that happened in my life...I stopped worrying about having a boyfriend for one thing...I started to really deal with the fact that my parents are getting older and I let go of all my resentments towards them and just let myself love them without reservation...anyway, it was no one thing in particular, but I just "got looser." I used to be a person absolutely plagued with self-consciousness and anxiety...in the past few years it all just kind of went away. Sometimes I say "I don't care"...which sounds fatalistic...but I don't care in the sense that I know that what will be, will be. If something terrible is going to happen, its going to happen, so why worry you know? I'll deal with it in its time...its part of life...and life is too short to waste feeling bad and waiting for the worst to happen... Hey, I agree, reading outside in the sun...one of life's true pleasures!! If you have the space, try shifting your bed out on to the deck or the balcony...its a lovely way to spend an afternoon! I would share my writings but maybe not to all of ena! If you wish to read something feel free to PM me... Link to comment
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